Through an exercise to redesign Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront in Hong Kong,
this thesis explores different approaches to achieve meaning through design. A site
survey and analysis is first carried out to address functional, social and potentially
aesthetic issues on site and to identify objectives for the proposed design. A conceptual
framework of the different approaches is then established primarily through
comparison and review of five relevant articles in Landscape Journal on the subject of
meanings in landscape design. The articles include Marc Treib’s “Must Landscape
Mean? Approaches to Significance in Recent Landscape Architecture”, Robert B. Riley’s
“From Sacred Grove to Disney World: The Search for Garden Meaning”, Laurie Olin’s
“Form, Meaning, and Expression in Landscape Architecture”, Jane Gillette’s “Can
Gardens Mean?” and Susan Herrington’s “Gardens Can Mean”. The categories of
approaches include: 1. Natural form/ Processes; 2. Genius of place/ History; 3.
Zeigeist/ Reference to art; 4. Vernacular/ Material; 5. Experiential/ Perception; 6.
Narrative and 7. Didactic. The second, the fifth and the sixth approaches are applied in
the redesign to address issues identified in the stage of site survey and analysis. The
resulting design is evaluated according to criteria drawn from the articles, including
such concepts as accessibility of the meaning, pleasure and integration with existing
context and execution. It is the author’s aspiration that what results from such a process
is a meaningful design that goes beyond a functional and economically viable solution:
one that possesses aesthetic significance.